…a successor to the Nintendo Wii capable of displaying games in high resolution. Will Nintendo finally make it happen? Multiple totally anonymous sources say yes: they told Game Informer, IGN andKotaku that just such a system will debut at E3 2011…

Things just got interesting.  I’m not sure how “backwards compatibility” would work.  You can’t just reconfigure the games for widescreen. I suppose they could make 4:3 higher def, but it would still feel like a waste of screen real estate.  It’s almost better to start from scratch at that point. Maybe we’ll know better this summer…

The die-hard gamers started complaining right away, but even IGN knew why a gaming console that promised easy playability was so important.

And there was the first look at the controller.

The hype built quickly, the “Wii” name change was a point of major initial controversy (I admit that I hated the change from “Revolution,” too), and the rumor mill suggested — in 2006, no less — that perhaps the Wii would be a 3D projector. Or a built-in camera to put your face on a Mii.

When it finally came time to buy one, Amazon’s sale was not unlike a lottery. I didn’t win that, either. I missed it the first day. But then I took advantage of the Blue Laws, went into work late one Monday, and grabbed one for myself. And had some initial happy impressions. (I never got used to Super Monkey Ball and sold it off later. It wasn’t my kind of game. “Rayman Raving Rabbids” was a big hit for me, though.)

That all was four and a half years ago. Things have changed since then. Wireless internet is everywhere, and everything in the house will be wireless soon, including your toaster. High Def TV is the new standard. And the Wii controls have finally been copied by Microsoft with the Kinect and Sony with something so embarrassing that I can’t even remember its name right now.

Lately, the 360 has pulled ahead, leaving the Wii as a strong second best seller from month to month. And, seriously, the difference between #1 and #2 isn’t that great here. Furthermore, the Wii will go down as the top selling video game console of all time. That’s pointed out by Chris Kohler in this article that explains why the Wii’s days may finally be numbered. With a rumored price drop coming next month, it looks like Nintendo is ready to set the old girl out to sea and move on to the next console for next year sometime. Such is life.

More from Kohler:

But if Nintendo’s plan to woo third-party gamemakers does revolve around a new machine, that leaves only Nintendo to keep Wii interesting. And even Nintendo seems to be washing its hands of Wii these days. The company is largely focusing on games for its recently launched Nintendo 3DS. To be fair, this is the more important task at hand, but the effort seems to be coming at the expense of Wii.

Yes, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be released for Wii at the end of the year. I do believe that the excellent Japanese role-playing games Xenoblade and The Last Story will make it to America. And Square Enix says we’ll hear about Dragon Quest X for Wii later this year, which will be a very big deal … in Japan. Not in the United States.

The Wii was a great console for its time, and it did great things. It expanded the video game industry in a way much of the industry still doesn’t want to acknowledge, even as it’s spent the last five years trying to copy its every move, from wireless motion controllers to the stripped down family-friendly game console package. And it’s still very playable, with many years’ worth of addictive and group-friendly games. I’m not tired of my Wii; I just wish I had more time to do gaming. I still pick it up for the occasional game of Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and I wish I had the time to get back into both Wii Sports games.

But, yeah, at the same rate I really do with it was in HD, as I’ve become a complete snob about that. Other than that, no complaints here. I’m not giving mine up anytime soon, but maybe it’s time to acknowledge the passing of the torch to — of all people — Microsoft.

The irony is rich.

Why, just yesterday, the following things see release:

* Greg Rucka’s new “Queen and Country” novel, “The Last Run.”

* Rock Band 3, featuring a keyboard component and the promise of Billy Joel songs to come.

* Back to the Future Trilogy on Blu-ray for only $48(!).

* If that’s not enough for you, on November 15th, we’ll see the release of the first volume of Mark Twain’s Autobiography, unpublished for 100 years after his death.

We are truly cursed to live in interesting times, yet with never enough time to absorb and enjoy it all.

“Once — if — Wii sales ever drop off, we expect a freakin’ deluge of Wii colors that’ll make a gay Pride parade look like a drab, colorless scene out of Killzone 2.”

Erica Sadun’s To Do app is barebones and featureless and a bit ugly, but it does the job I need it to do.  I don’t need anything fancier than this, thanks.  I probably could just use 37 Signals’ TaDaLlist.com, instead, but this is good enough for a few things at a time.  It’s also free.

I love looking up “To Do” in the App Store, because all the icons are identical.  They’re all checks over a box, with various color schemes.

TweetDeck is, no doubt, the most used. It’s the only way I ever want to use Twitter now, thanks.  Someday, I’ll get it linked up to my desktop client, but not just yet.  I don’t need it to be.  I don’t follow so many people that I get lost in the noise.

The USA Today app is good for a quick breeze through the news.  And once it’s done updating itself, the stories load instantly, which is nice.

Flight Control. Addicting little game.  My high score is 19.  Not the game that I’ll kill the most time with, but I like the interface, where you’re drawing landing paths for all the planes flying around, without letting them crash.  Games aren’t terribly long, either.

Tiki Golf 3D.  Fun mini-golf game.  The opening levels are challenging without being impossible.  I’m trying “Let’s Golf” next for a more serious golfing game.

iHandy Level.  I don’t know when I might use it, but I like having a bubble spirit level thing in my pocket.

Amazon.com. I’ve used the feature where you take a picture of something and they email you back with what it is a few times with great success.  Impressive, and very handy.

PhotoGen.  THE photo editing app for the iPhone.  Just adjusting the levels is enough for most pictures, but this also handles cropping, color adjustments, and all the standard stuff you could ask for.

Fieldrunners.  Desktop Tower Defense for the iPhone. The single biggest time sink on the iPhone for me right now.  I’ve played this kind of game before, but it still hooks me.  I screamed when I lost on level 99 the other day.  The game only has 100 levels. Ugh!

Also, happy birthday to my wife today, who occasionally enjoys my DS and was once addicted to Brain Games. =)

It’s official now, but it’s not enough:

Sony lowers price of PlayStation 2 to $129.99 – Joystiq

This week at the PlayStation Blog:

For the first time ever, PlayStation 2 will be offered at a price point under $100 (that’s $99.99 MSRP, to be exact), starting April 1!

It’s almost THREE YEARS too late.  Did I link to the story yet about how the Wii’s Balance Board has sold almost as many units as Sony has sold PS3s?

• I started on Medium mode this time around.  GH3 gave me enough experience that I thought starting on Beginner or Easy mode would be too mind-numbing.  I was right.  Medium is relatively simple, but has its challenges: keeping your concentration through 400+ notes is one of the biggest.  The occasional interspersed fourth fret throws you off when you’re not used to using it.  And yet it’s “easy” enough to really get into the rhythm of the music and find your GH groove.  There are some tricky combo moves, though, that keep me on my toes.

• So, you have to play sets of songs (2 to 4) to advance on this system, and not just a song at a time? Weird.  Well, I mean, you can not do the career mode and just practice a song.  So it’s still available to you.  But it is different. Likewise, I haven’t played as a bass yet, but I can’t wait.

• So far, the hardest thing to do has been to come up with a band name.

• The new guitar is a little longer than the previous model. That took some adjusting.  The star power button is a nice addition, but I haven’t wrapped my brain around it yet.  I’ll work it in eventually.  For now, I just do the traditional Raising of the Guitar Neck to invoke it.

• The slide portion on the neck, likewise, is something that excites me but I haven’t worked into my gameplay yet.  I fear taking my right hand off the strumming part, even for a second. I know there’s a tutorial for it in there, so I’ll have to play with it later.

• I’m not a Nirvana fan, yet it was a Nirvana song that landed me my first 100% score of the game.

• GH is fascinating to me, from a music perspective: When you think of a song, you hum the melody.  But the lead guitar line is often NOT the melody.  When you’re playing a GH song, it takes a while to stop pressing the frets to the melody, and start playing to the guitar line.  I find that fascinating.  And the songs that go further off that line are often the most challenging and rewarding.  (I think I mentioned this with the previous iteration of the game, too.  Pardon my repetition.)

• It’s obvious that some songs were chosen for their drum or vocal parts, and not their guitar licks.  Some songs are almost painfully boring to play on the guitar, with long silent portions.  That Beastie Boys song is only there for the person singing.  Perhaps it’s good for the drums, too, I don’t know.  But it’s not a guitar song.  Does this weaken the brand?  Or is it what the video game populace demands, and so Activision must provide?

• There’s still a certain level of cognitive dissonance in watching the CGI band perform a song by a band you know, particularly when using the original master tracks that sound like they come from the 1970s or 1980s.  You KNOW Rick Springfield doesn’t look like that guy, and hearing those old recordings being performed by a character animated with a few thousand polygons seems — off. I’d expect the Intellivision Running Man to be singing the song, instead, you know?